Technical Field
The present application is directed generally to the sensing of ultraviolet radiation and, more specifically, to the sensing of ultraviolet radiation to detect an indoor or outdoor condition of an electronic device and the control of the electronic device based on the sensed indoor or outdoor condition.
Description of the Related Art
Controlling the operation of electronic devices, particularly portable electronic devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, could benefit from knowledge of the environment in which the electronic device is present. More specifically, sensing whether the electronic device is located in an indoor or outdoor environment could then be used to control the operation of the device in a different manner depending on the environment in which the device is located. For example, before turning on Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality of an electronic device a determination could be made as to whether the device is in an outdoor environment. Activation of GPS functionality only when the electronic device is in an outdoor environment would typically be desirable since such functionality is not typically needed when the device is in an indoor environment and may not function properly in an indoor environment.
Another example where control of an electronic device could benefit from knowledge of whether the device is in an indoor or outdoor environment is the Wi-Fi functionality of the device. Before activating Wi-Fi functionality of an electronic device to search for access points of Wi-Fi networks in the vicinity of the device, a determination could be made as to whether the device is in an indoor environment. Activation of Wi-Fi functionality only when the electronic device is in an indoor environment would be desirable since Wi-Fi networks are not typically present in outdoor environments. Thus, the activation of the Wi-Fi functionality in an outdoor environment only wastes battery power of the electronic device.
There is a need for improved techniques of determining whether an electronic device is present in an indoor or outdoor environment to enable control of the electronic device to be modified accordingly.